Calls for national child protection laws after Toowoomba abuse case

Updated
February 25, 2014 19:02:00

The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse has wrapped up its inquiry into a Toowoomba primary school where 13 girls were abused by their teacher in 2007 and 2008. The examination of how the church and the school responded to the allegations has prompted calls for a national approach and national laws on mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse.

MARK COLVIN: In the wash-up of the child abuse royal commission's inquiry in Brisbane, there are calls for a set of nationally consistent rules on how and when child sexual abuse allegations should be referred to police.

Yesterday the former bishop of Toowoomba told the child abuse inquiry that he was still stunned by the failure of senior Catholic Education staff to report allegations that a teacher was sexually abusing 13 students just a few years ago.

One of Australia's leading child abuse prevention organisations, Child Wise, says there are still ambiguities around the legal obligations to report child sexual abuse, and the existing laws are not well understood.

Emily Bourke reports.

EMILY BOURKE: Gerard Byrnes is in jail for sexually assaulting 13 girls while he was a teacher and child protection officer at a Catholic primary school in Toowoomba.

The latest inquiry by the child abuse royal commission heard that a breakdown in policies and a string of individual failures contributed to Byrnes being able to access and abuse more girls despite allegations being voiced in 2007.

Crucially, the inquiry heard that the school principal and officials from the Catholic Education Office failed to report the matter to police, even though mandatory reporting laws were in place.

Scott Jacobs is head of research and advocacy from the organisation Child Wise.

SCOTT JACOBS: We can't rely merely on having a legislation to say that mandatory reporting must take place. The Northern Territory, for instance, mandates that everybody must report child sexual abuse. However, we haven't seen a substantial increase or decrease directly as a result of that.

Mandatory reporting is very difficult to enforce because it relies on suspicion or reasonable belief that child abuse is taking place, and law enforcement officials often will struggle to find evidence that that's the case.

EMILY BOURKE: And he argues there's a need to bolster and harmonise the existing patchwork of laws.

SCOTT JACOBS: Child Wise is definitely advocating for greater legislative reform. We need to make sure that organisations are supported through having external standards and regulations that put in place safeguards for children.

Things like making sure an open and aware culture is in place so that if something like this happens, it can be challenged; to make sure that support and supervision of staff occurs; that if they're not sure of the policies, if they don't know who to report, then they're able to.

But also about complaints and grievances so there needs to be external redress mechanisms or almost a whistleblower policy so that people feel comfortable and confident in raising concerns that things haven't been dealt with internally, they can go to the police or to child protection.

And it's about empowering children as well to make sure that they understand body safety and personal safety, and are able to speak up.

EMILY BOURKE: During this recent public hearing by the royal commission in Brisbane, one child protection officer at the school said that the children should have had the courage to speak out, while other witnesses said that they dismissed the early complaints as gossip.

Despite staff training, reporting laws, and child protection policies, the former bishop of Toowoomba, William Morris, said that he was stunned that some people "don't get it".

Scott Jacobs from Child Wise says many organisations are yet to prove their child protection credentials.

SCOTT JACOBS: Largely it comes down to training and understanding and awareness. There's any number of policies and procedures that can be put in place, but the best ones will not be effective unless staff genuinely buy in to the idea of child safety and understand the importance of it, and that goes right from the top down, from the board level, executive level, management, middle management, frontline staff. In any organisation there must be an understanding and a commitment of what it takes to be child safe.

EMILY BOURKE: The royal commission has wrapped up the Toowoomba case-study. Any findings will sit alongside those from other similar investigations, such as the Forde Inquiry 15 years ago, which looked at child abuse in institutions in Queensland.

Scott Jacobs again.

SCOTT JACOBS: There's also been the Protecting Children, looking at foster care in Queensland in 2004; there's The Forgotten Australians in the Australian Senate.

So it's something that we've seen in the past, that organisations have been investigated, that recommendations have been made, and some often are implemented, but they seem to not go quite far enough, and Child Wise is very firmly of the opinion that the public awareness around an issue that's been in the shadows for so long is starting to have a very big impact.

There will be a much stronger public will for change coming out of this commission than there have been previously.

EMILY BOURKE: Tomorrow the royal commission will open another public case study. This time it will examine the Parramatta Girls Training School and the Institution for Girls in Hay in New South Wales.